The Lost Goodbye
by mugglenet27
Summary: Nothing is more final than goodbye... Oneshot.


**Title:** The Lost Goodbye

**Summary: **Nothing is more final than goodbye…

**Disclaimer:** The song lyrics are from the song "The Soft Goodbye" performed by Chloë Agnew, Méav Ni Mhaolchatha, and Lisa Kelly. Harry Potter and all related characters/places/ideas belong to J.K. Rowling. The plot is my own, with some help on the second half from a friend. Also note that there is a bible verse in here, which obviously isn't mine.

**-----**

_There's a dream that will not sleep,  
a burning hope that will not die.  
So I must go now with the wind  
and leave you waiting on the tide.  
_

**-----**

"I'll come back for you."

He repeated the words over and over, and he'd say them a thousand times if he could just make it come true. But nothing was ever certain in this world of magic, a fact that he had painfully come to grasp as he grew.

"And I'll wait for you."

She promised him. No matter how long it would take to free the Wizarding world of the dark hold that Voldemort had on it, she would wait patiently for his return when he would finally be able to live the life that he deserved.

After simply staring at each other for what seemed like eternity, sepia meeting jade, she threw her arms around his neck, and they clung to each other with all the passion and regret built up inside of them over the year.

She buried her head in the crook of his neck, her tears staining the shoulder of his shirt. It was as if she was unable to draw herself away from him - as if some force had pulled them together, their bodies interlocking perfectly.

They were made for each other. His every flaw was perfectly complimented by her grace, and the same went for her weaknesses and his strengths. To be certain, whatever higher power had pushed them together certainly had known what they were doing.

Slowly, she pulled her head up and glanced at his somber face that revealed no more than she had already known - he could bear this moment no more than she could. Closing his eyes, he let out a deep breath, his arms encircling her waist. She stood tall and placed her flushed, smudged cheek against his.

"So this is it," she whispered, her breath tickling the side of his face. "This is what we've come to - stealing a moment alone, hidden in the safety of others?"

It pained him to hear her sound so broken, so rejected, so frightened. So…_alone_. He tightened his hold on her and replied, "Yes. And it will have to end soon. You know I'm the only one who can finish this, and I need to before any other unnecessary deaths occur." He planted small kisses along her jaw line through his words, the need for physical contact between the two of them growing with the ever-increasing intensity of the moment.

She could feel her eyes well up with tears, and she tried to hold them back. She was not some foolish girl who would show weakness this much - but the tears were unpreventable. They streamed down her face, choking her up as she tried to speak again.

"I-I know you've s-said it a," she hiccupped, "hundred t-times…but you…you promise me that you'll come back to me? Will you promise me that we'll get to hold each other in our arms once again? Promise me," she started, her voice growing stronger with every sentence, "that…that you'll always love me." She sounded desperate and full of a deep longing, like a lost child trying to find her way back to where she belonged.

Allowing a small smile to grace his features, he nodded. "I'd promise you the world if I thought I could deliver it. But this I swear by my very life: I will return to you."

Unable to control herself for a moment longer, she turned and pressed her lips against his, conveying every emotion she had ever felt for him in that kiss.

_Love never fails...And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love._

They separated just over a minute later, gasping for air. He smiled down at her and wiped a tear away with the pad of his thumb.

"I must look awful." She laughed once, quietly, despite the situation at hand.

"No, you're wrong." Surprise filled her eyes as she glanced up at him. "You've never looked more beautiful than you do now."

She managed another weak chuckle. "You're just saying that."

"I wouldn't lie to you. You're perfect in my eyes."

As she opened her mouth to respond, a scream pierced the couple's last moments. He stared over her shoulder, his face suddenly dimming.

"It's started. I-" he trailed off as their eyes met once again. He paused, unable to pull away from the girl in front of him. It was if he was mesmerized by her very gaze, and he felt his heart break in two at the sight of her.

"Know this - I love you now, and I will love you forever. Goodb-"

"No! Don't say it." She held a slender finger to his lips. "Goodbye is final; this is not. Remember, you promised me."

He swallowed the growing lump in his throat. "So I did. And I meant every word." With that, he closed the gap between the two of them once again. As they kissed, he slowly pulled out his wand and cast a stunner on the girl in front of him.

Her eyes sprung open as she realized what had happened. He gently set her down and glanced back at her, eyes full of regret.

"I'm sorry. You'll be free the moment the battle is over. I don't want you following me. I couldn't bear to see you hurt," he tried to explain as he backed away.

Hot tears of anger streamed down her face, which had, along with her ears, become flushed. Her eyes conveyed the message she so desperately wished she could speak: _don't do this to me._

"I love you."

And with those words, Harry James Potter turned his back on the girl he loved to fight for the world he called his own.

**-----**

He walked slowly, calmly, coolly out onto the scene, gravel crunching beneath his every step. The sun above was blaring down at those already in action, only a slight breeze blowing from the east cooling them off.

It was too beautiful a day to be stained with blood.

Not daring to look around at those already fallen, he walked resolutely forward, passing duel after duel, fight after fight…body after body. Unsure of where he was headed, he paused in the middle of the battle. He knew it was unsafe, but his mind had left his body to work; it was if he was on autopilot, gliding gently through the field.

He glanced around, finally, for any sign of _him, _unaware of his peers and mentors watching his every move. They looked upon him with a slightly fearful eye, but with the respect he so deserved.

Their savior had arrived.

Nonetheless, he was not particularly strong or muscular. On the contrary, he was rather peculiar looking, as his glasses were slightly large for his face, the upper rim covering his eyebrows, which, if you took the time to look, you would see were just as messy as his hair.

After standing for a few minutes, he became painfully aware of a vast, evil presence making its way towards him, floating past the bloodshed and towards the ebony-haired teen, standing anxiously…waiting.

Finally, he raised his head to meet his gaze. "You shouldn't be here, Tom."

The man's eyes narrowed into miniscule slits as he spat back, "Potter - you piece of filth - don't you _dare_ call me by my foolish Muggle father's name!" Then, wasting no time, he added, "_Crucio!_"

Nevertheless, Harry was prepared. Spinning quickly to his right, he dodged the spell and pulled out his wand to fire off a Backfiring Jinx, which Voldemort easily avoided.

An intense stare down began after that - the two circling around each other as all other battles nearly halted to watch the pair.

"Stop gaping, you fools, and finish them!"

He took the break in the Dark Lord's concentration to fire off an unspoken hex, which he barely missed getting hit in the side with. Spinning in a flurry of billowing robes, Lord Voldemort flew out of the way and closer to the Boy Who Lived, whose eyes went wide as he noticed something out of his peripheral vision.

Ron…lying on the ground…dead.

With Lucius Malfoy standing over him, smirking maliciously at his victory over the ginger-haired boy.

A new found rage and determination filled Harry as he hurled himself into the clash at hand. His best friend…how _dare_ he? What gave him the authority to decide who lives and who dies?

"You will pay for that, Tom! No one touches my friends and lives!"

"I'd like to see you try and stop me. While you're caught up in futilely trying to defeat me, your comrades are falling around you quicker than you can even spot them," he teased.

"You LIE!"

Lord Voldemort's pose shifted slightly and his red eyes seemed to bore into Harry's very soul. "Am I? Just glance around, Potter," he bit out the name with disgust.

Terrified of what he would find, Harry placed the strongest shield he could muster around himself and glanced to the sides.

_No…it can't be. It can't be!_

All around him, his closest friends and teachers seemed to litter the ground. A quick glance to his left showed Remus hurling himself in front of a killing curse meant for Tonks, who fell to the ground under the weight of the werewolf. Her deep amber eyes filled with anguish before Harry blinked, and he felt his heart break in two as he saw her double over his soulless body and sob, nearly making herself sick.

_Who is responsible for their pain?_ he wondered

The maniacal laughter that followed the scene confirmed his worst suspicions - none other than Bellatrix Black was putting the Metamorphmagus through the intense pain. Her face was lit up with the joy of watching her niece suffer.

Raising her wand, she screamed loudly, _"AVADA KEDAVRA_!" ending the life of the broken girl whose life had lost its purpose anyway.

"See, Potter? My side is simply stronger. You might as well admit defeat right here and now."

Harry's eyes clouded over and his shield weakened, his entire body shaking.

**-----**

"Ron! Ron, look!" Hermione yelled as she dodged yet another curse from Goyle. "Harry and Voldemort have disappeared!"

Ron stumbled over a dip in the ground and fell into a somersault, quickly springing back to his feet. "What did you say?" he called back as he fired off a Reductor Curse at Malfoy.

"Look at Harry and Voldemort!"

He turned his gaze to the scene and nearly toppled over at the sight.

A black smoke had covered the two, making their battle impossible to see.

_Just what is going on in there?_

**-----**

"How dare you?" Harry mumbled. "How _DARE_ you?" He glanced up, his passion-filled emerald eyes staring down his greatest enemy. "Who are you to ruin the lives of those who simply share the same world as you!"

An evil grin found its way onto the Dark Lord's face. "You just don't understand, do you? I don't _need_ a reason, Harry Potter. All you need to know is that I can…and I do." His voice was malicious, showing just how evil the man truly was - to kill with no reason. "Just what are you so worried about anyway? Your precious _girlfriend?_" Voldemort gestured behind Harry, who whirled around quicker than the eye could see, it seemed.

Standing at the top of the hill, he glanced down into the valley below, where three Death Eaters were slowly creeping in on one defenseless girl, lying on the ground.

"Ginny," he breathed. He turned back to Voldemort. "No…"

"You're too late, Potter. The one you most wanted to protect will die at your very hand. Admit it…you're the one truly causing all this pain, all this destruction, all this death. We both know it's true."

Harry shook his head, unable to form words at the horror that was instilled in him.

"Any last words to say to her? It's not as if she can hear you anyway, I suppose," the man boomed, followed by an evil cackle.

He turned back around and ran forward a few steps, determined to save her. The Death Eaters had heard his footsteps, though. They glanced up at him out of the corner of their eyes and turned to back to the girl, all three of them with their wands raised. Before Harry could even get halfway to them, three beams of light flew out and struck the girl of his dreams in her heart.

Her eyes dulled as she watched him.

He fell to his knees, broken and defeated. As he kneeled there, pure, unrefined power began to radiate from his body. His eyes narrowed and he pulled up a handful of dirt, clenching it in his fist.

**-----**

"Hermione! Have you seen Ginny or Harry?" Remus called out.

Hermione shook her head. "No. Ginny hasn't been out here at all that I've seen, and Harry disappeared nearly a half hour ago in that dark cloud. No one knows what's going on-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a beam of pure white light shot through the darkness. Slowly, the cloud began to melt away and all the remaining Death Eaters fell to the ground in an unbearable pain. The mark on their arm seared white hot, making them all pass out rather quickly from the ache.

"W-What's going on?" Ron stuttered as Malfoy fell near his feet. He rushed over to Remus, Hermione, and McGonagall, who had all gathered to witness the scene.

"It's a beam of raw magical energy…but I don't think it's a good sign. Power that strong," Remus shielded his eyes from the light, which was growing increasingly brighter, "is sure to kill whoever emitted it."

Only after the miasma had faded away was it clear what had happened.

Voldemort's body was hovering nearly fifteen feet off the ground, beams of that painfully bright light shooting through it, piercing his soul.

Everyone watched in awe as the body seemed to disappear before their very eyes, leaving only Harry, who fell to his knees, clutching at his heart.

Ron, Hermione, and Remus rushed up to him as he fell face first onto the blood-stained grass. Ron heaved him up as Remus felt for a pulse.

"Still there. Barely, but it's there." He nodded reassuringly.

He conjured up a stretcher, and with help from Ron, put the badly beaten boy onto it. Shortly afterward, Ginny came running up to them, finally free from her spell.

"No! What happened!" She rushed over and cradled the head of her love in her lap. "Don't tell me he's-"

"He's still alive, but only just," Remus replied.

Ginny brushed the fringe of his bangs out of his eyes and stared down at his scar, which was red and completely broken open as if he had just received it.

"Merlin, what happened to him?"

The old Marauder stared down at his best friend's son. "Visions. He was subjected to visions. God only knows what he was forced to endure. The energy he just radiated surely didn't help the situation any."

Ginny ran the pad of her thumb over his cheekbone as a tear slid down her nose and onto his dirty, bloody face.

It was there, as he was cradled in his true loves arms, that Harry James Potter took his last breath, unable to endure the change in his very being that came from draining every ounce of magic from his cells.

Ginny choked back a sob as she pulled him up into a sitting position and into her lap, rocking his empty body back and forth as she cried for everything the world had just gained back…and that she had just lost.

"Why? Why does _everything_ have to happen to you? _WHY_!" she screamed, staring at Harry, before glancing at the heavens. Her tousled red hair fell around her as she stared back down at the ground, her shoulders shaking as she cried uncontrollably.

"You promised me," she whimpered between her tears, smoothing his hair down and cradling him against her trembling self. "Don't you remember? You promised me that you'd come back to me. I suppose you were too good for me, weren't you? You only kept one of your promises…that we'd be in each other's arms once again." Her weeping died down to a controllable level. "But I suppose all promises are meant to be broken, aren't they?"

She placed a chaste kiss on his lips and lay him gently down onto the ground.

"I love you now, and I will love you forever, Harry Potter." She stood, tears still streaming down her face. "Goodbye."


End file.
